I am looking to stay in the 250-350 range.

That will be a determining factor for where it makes sense for you to purchase.Regarding waiting - bear in mind a lot of people were predicting rates in 2024 would be in 5% range or low 6s, which didn't turn out to be the case.

Houses here that are move in ready range from $200-300k.

But trust is earned and as I learn more (and remain open to pivoting to MTR and LTR), not sure in our specific case, the 30% is worth it (which is the going rate locally) and can be in the range of $30K+ per year.

It's been great - the property is 100% paid off and the house is worth 300-340k generating approx $2300/mo (that's after utilities/management fees etc.)I'm considering selling the property to buy 3 more within the same price range in the same market. 

We are finding many properties needing light to moderate rehab in the 100-125K range.  

We got three estimates from masonry repair companies ranging from $7,500 (patch) to $35,000 ("do this repair now or you will need a major $80K repair").

She has somewhere in the range of $150,000 to $200,000 in free rent.

Meaning you cannot just evict a tenant because their lease has expired.You will have to build sufficient evidence admissible in court and to the satisfaction of a judge to prove good cause to get a warrant of eviction.Many housing providers kept high risk tenants on month to month leases so that if the tenant stopped paying rent, you could simply give them a notice to vacate and recover possession of the rental unit that way.The reason for this methodology was because the HSTPA of 2019 passed in NYS made it extremely onerous and costly for housing providers to evict due to non payment.That method under good cause will be eliminated.So you can still keep tenants month to month but you will need to document the lease violation due to nonpayment rigorously.How many times and how late is “good” enough?

This downward trend has been consistent over the past decade, with annual declines ranging from 0.15% to 0.44%. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/ITA/ita...3.